


A Deal With God

by MythicallySnappy



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 04:21:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5729341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MythicallySnappy/pseuds/MythicallySnappy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett can't do it anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Deal With God

**Author's Note:**

> This little ficlet came to me in a flurry, and I've been brooding over it for about a week. 
> 
> This is _highly_ influenced by Placebo's cover of _Running Up That Hill_ , originally released by Kate Bush in 1985, so I really recommend that you have a listen (link to the song [here](https://youtu.be/nIJ8DogiIiw)).

     “Stop it, Link.” The blond pressed a stern hand of warning against his brunet friend’s chest. “You gotta stop this, man.” The unseasonably warm June Carolina night left their skin dewy long after the sun had set, cicadas chirping in a deafening chorus. Link’s heart beat heavy behind the taller boy’s palm. He pushed into the blond anyway, hands skimming his hips and eyes glistening, pleading.  
     “Please, Rhett. Don’t do this.” He backed his friend against the door of the Dynasty, the taller boy’s severe brow highlighted by the pale moonlight. “This matters. We both matter. Don’t we?”  
     “Let it go, Link. We’re going to college in a couple months. We gotta cut this out, man.” He pushed the smaller boy off of him and stepped away, crossing his gangly arms over his stomach. The forest around them stirred with life, leaves rustling and twigs snapping. The brunet swallowed hard, running his hands through his dark, damp mop of hair. His eyes scrunched closed; heart thump, thump, thumping in his chest.

     Rhett eyed his friend’s distress with a distant calculated stare. His tone softened. “Link, you’re my best friend, and heck, you always will be. I don’t want you to hurt, Link. But this stuff we’re doing, it ain’t right. It ain’t right and you know it.” Pinpricks of tears stung at the corners of the brunet’s eyes.  
     “It doesn’t hurt me, Rhett.” He threw his head back, looking to the moon, chest heaving and silently hoping his tears would disappear. “You wanna feel how it feels?” He rounded on the taller boy, desperately pulling his broad fist between his palms. He pressed his lips against his hand, whispering pleas into his tacky skin. “You wanna know that it doesn’t hurt me?” He let out a humorless laugh, his arctic blue eyes boring holes through the blond.  
     “Link, stop, I’m serious,” the blond said, pulling his fist away, rubbing the burnet’s lingering kiss away with his other hand. “This is _wrong_ , Link. And—“ his voice dropped to a whisper. “I ain’t no faggot.” The brunet’s face fell; empty, aching. The smaller man sunk low onto his heels, his face buried between his hands, pointed like a steeple. He looked up at the blond, his crouched posture like a boy much younger than his seventeen years.

     “You don’t think I go to bed every night and try to make a deal with God? That I freaking _pray_ every night that I’ll wake up and not want this? That I won’t need this?” His eyes fell closed and hot, salty tears ran down his cheeks, disappearing into his goatee. “I pray every night that He’ll swap our places, Rhett. That tomorrow I’ll wake up and be the bigger man who’s ready to walk away and forget that any of this ever happened.” Rhett swallowed hard, his lips pressed closed and clean-shaven jaw quivering. “I pray that you’ll be the one begging me to stay.”

     “You don’t wanna hurt me,” Link said quietly, pulling himself to his feet and stepping up to the blond, their chests inches away from each other. “It’s too late, Rhett. You wanna see how deep the bullet lies?” He ground his teeth together, breaths escaping him in desperate puffs.  
     “ _Stop_ it, Link,” the blond murmured. “I can’t _do_ this. I can’t let you pull me apart like this.” He placed his hands on the smaller boy’s shoulders, shaking him lightly, looking down his nose at the crumpling man before him. “You think this ain’t hard for me? But I gotta put a stop to this. It ain’t right. And I got myself a nice girl, Link. A real nice girl. And you could too, if you’d just let this _go_.” The brunet’s hands balled into fists, the color rising in his face.  
     “This _matters_ , Rhett. I know it matters. I know it because every time we kiss I can taste it on your tongue. I know it because every time you touch me I can feel it on your fingertips. I know it,” he said, running his palms up the taller boy's chest, “because every time you put yourself inside me there is thunder in our hearts.” The blond let out a shaky breath as Link ran his hands up and around the nape of his neck, pulling his forehead down against his own.

     “And it’s gotta stop now, Link. We can’t do this anymore.”  
     “We can do it, Rhett. We could. You and me. We would be happy.”  
     “No, we can’t. It’s over, Link. It’s done.” Link sniffed hard and pounded a fist hard against the taller boy’s chest. He turned his head and let an anguished cry disappear into the woods of Harnett county. A fresh barrage of tears spilled down his face as his hands fumbled at the the back of the blond’s neck, pressing fraught kisses onto his chin, down the stiff tendons in his throat. Rhett’s eyes fluttered closed; conflicted, struggling. His head fell back onto his shoulders as the brunet showered him with his hopeful lips.  
     “C’mon, Rhett,” Link whispered. He placed his palms on the sides of the blond’s jaw, pulling him upright. His wet lips and tear-streaked cheeks glistened in the moonlight. “C’mon.” He brushed his thumb across Rhett’s lower lip, imploring.  
     “Link, no…”  
     “Please, Rhett. Just let me steal this moment from you now.” The blond let out a heavy sigh, their lips connecting. His hands fell loosely at his sides as the smaller man pulled him closer, his tongue slipping between the taller boy’s lips. Link let one hand run down the blond’s wiry arm, entwining their fingers. “C’mon,” he breathed. Rhett reluctantly obliged, smoothing his free hand up the brunet’s back, underneath his thin, cotton shirt. Memories of Rhett’s silky flesh flooded Link’s mind. The first time they’d kissed, in an abandoned shack not far from where they stood. The first time they touched each other, intimate and urgent, pulled over in Link’s pickup truck on the side of the four-lane road on the way back home from Dunn. The first time they whispered _I love you_ , laid shirtless on a hot, flat rock like an island in the Cape Fear River. The first time Rhett had slowly and sweetly pressed himself inside the trembling brunet, covering each other in kisses as they rocked to each other’s pounding heart beats in Link’s bed while his mother was away at work. Link moaned softly at the memory, savoring the taste of Rhett’s lips on his, his fingers braided between his own, the wide palm caressing the small of his back sending shivers up his spine.

     Rhett pulled away, dropping his hands and taking a deliberate step backwards. “That’s it, Link. That’s it, it’s done.” Link furrowed his brow. “No more.” He pulled open the passenger door of the Dynasty, gesturing for the brunet to get in. “I’m taking you home.” The brunet stood immovable; dumbfounded, broken. “It’s late.”  
     “Please…?”  
     “No, Link.”  
     “ _Please_ , Rhett.”  
     “I don’t know how else I can say it to you. _No_.”  
     “Oh God, _please_ ,” Link wailed, collapsing to his knees on the dirt road, his face buried in his hands. “Please God, I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything not to feel this way.”

     Rhett closed his eyes briefly as he frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know what to _do_ , Link. I don’t know what to do to make this easier.” The brunet’s shoulders convulsed as his breath came in short labored gasps, his hands lowering and palms pressed flat into the pebbly ground. Gulping sobs wracked his body like a drowning man; desperate, thrashing. The blond crouched next to him, extending a hesitant hand out to his shoulder, withdrawing it before he made contact. “Please don’t do this, Link.”  
     “I— I can’t,” the brunet tried to explain before sinking to his elbows.  
     “You have to. I can’t leave you here. Come on, let’s go home.”  
     “ _Leave me_ ,” Link spat, tears obscuring his vision. He sat back on his ankles as he took a few steadying breaths. “Leave me alone. I can’t be this close to you.”  
     “I’m _not_ gonna leave you here.” Link closed his eyes as he tried to collect himself.  
     “It’s okay. Go home, Rhett. I’m gonna walk. I need the air. I need to clear my head.”  
     “Link, we’re not close to home. It’ll take you an—“ The brunet cut him off.  
     “An hour. Maybe more. It’s fine. _Go_.”  
     “It’s dangerous, I can’t leave you here.”  
     “It ain't _dangerous_ , Rhett. It’s Buies Creek. Nothin’ dangerous here except for how my heart feels when you’re around.” He gave his best attempt at a smile.

     Link slowly pulled himself up to his feet, his hands brushing the dust off of his knees and elbows. The blond followed suit, looking on with concern. “Get in the car, Link.”  
     “I’m serious, Rhett. _Go_. I’ll be fine. It’s fine.”  
     “Link…”  
     “ _Go_.”

     Rhett turned, closing the passenger door and reluctantly lowered himself into the drivers side of the Dynasty, sending looks of hurt and confusion Link’s way. The door clicked shut, and the engine growled. Link stood in the middle of the dirt road as he watched Rhett’s glowing red tail lights disappear into the woods ahead of him. When the dust had settled and he could no longer hear the rumble of his friend's vehicle in the distance, he took off in a sprint. He ran down the road until his muscles ached. He ran up the hills of the North Carolina countryside until his veins pumped battery acid. And then he ran some more.

**Author's Note:**

> I appreciate any comments, questions, critique, and anything else. Thanks for reading.


End file.
